


Decision

by alternative_sol



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: (Child) robot suicide, A2's perspective, Route C spoilers, Slightly alternate take on the factory scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25398178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alternative_sol/pseuds/alternative_sol
Summary: A really short retelling of one of my favorite scenes from Automata.
Kudos: 13





	Decision

_Machines are capable of more than just mindless destruction._

A2 would never have believed in such a thing before, but meeting Pascal and the residents of his village have taught her otherwise. 

Peace, kindness, and love. Fear, loss... 

And sorrow. 

Pascal, knees on the ground, head in his hands, sobbed at the sight before him. The corpses of the village children lay all around the factory floor, metal rods skewered through them by their own hands. 

A dull pain, almost too faint to notice, began to grow in A2’s chest. It confused her at first, yet she realized soon enough that the pain was familiar. Yes, despite being numb for so long, she remembered feeling this before. She hasn’t felt this way since- 

"A2...” 

The sound of Pascal’s voice brought her back to the present. She turned to see him still on the ground, only now he had his eyes were looking straight into her own. His gaze felt hollow rather than mechanical. 

“I need your aid. I... I cannot live with this heartbreak inside me. I need you...” 

Pascal turned away and paused, hesitating for a half-second before he continued. 

“I need you to delete my memories. And if not, then I need you to kill me.” 

Pascal dropped his gaze back to the ground. Moments ago, A2 had felt a fierce will coming from Pascal. A determination to stop any threat from approaching the factory. Not a drop of that remained in the machine in front of her. 

A2 weighed her options. Deleting his memories would only turn him back into something he wasn’t; a mindless machine who existed only to destroy everything around it. The world didn’t need any more them. 

She grabbed her sword. Pascal remained still, not a word coming out of him since he made his plea. She lifted the blade high, slashed down with all her strength... 

And stopped herself swing away from Pascal’s body. 

She questioned her own hesitation. One clean swipe would free Pascal from his despair. Either that or he’d be just another enemy. Why did she stop? 

Suddenly, the memories of the mission came flooding back. The absolute failure. Everyone around her, everyone she cared about, gone in an instant. Even after spending ages repressing the memories, they were still there. And they would always remain. 

_Is that such a bad thing?_

All this time she had been trying to escape the grief. No, that wasn’t right. It was always there. She masked it with fury and apathy, refusing to acknowledge it for what it truly was. There was a part of her, she realized, that no longer wished to do so. And she wouldn’t let him do it, either. 

A2 put her sword back in its place and began to walk towards the exit. Three steps later she could hear Pascal lift his head towards her, and she could feel his gaze upon her back. 

“A2... what are you doing?” 

"You know what I’m doing,” she muttered. “I’m leaving.” 

“A2, please-” 

“I’m not doing what you’ve asked,” she said, her tone firmer than before. “It’s not my decision to make.” 

“A2, _please_!” Pascal’s cries echoed off of the factory walls. “Kill me! Please, anything to make this stop!” 

Each echo amplified the pain inside A2, but she did not yield. Her mouth began to form an apology, but she closed her lips and continued walking. 

“A2... why...” were the last words she heard before Pascal’s voice devolve into quiet sobs. 

Hours later, A2 was slumped against a wall on the floor of one of the thousands of abandoned buildings in the city. Pascal’s pleas still fresh in her mind, she wondered if she had done what was best for him. The thought quickly left her head and was replaced by another: 

_Machines are capable of more than just mindless destruction._

Maybe they were capable of healing, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there. This is my first time writing any kind of fiction in years, and my first time writing fanfiction at all. So this probably didn't end up great. It also definitely feels rushed and maybe-not-so-polished, but I wanted to use this story as a bit of a test run to see how I write and how I feel about it. Also also, it's 2 a.m., and I wanted to feel like I got something out there, regardless of its quality. Please let me know what you think, and thanks for reading! Hope you have a great one.


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